Arvind Narayanan's journal

There's a scene is Saving Private Ryan where the squad is getting pounded big time, and waiting for the next installment to start. They're smoking to try to calm their nerves. One of the characters, Upham, narrates that on his first day, when he was offered a cigarette, he said "no thank you, I don't smoke," which everyone finds hilariously absurd.

That is exactly the story of me and coffee at my new job. On my first day, I said "no thank you, I hardly ever drink coffee." Now I tell that story to colleagues and we laugh about it. I need at least three to get through the day.

last year when i interned in London, i found the coffee there so bad that my consumption dropped from six cups a day to zero! only very occasionally i used to have some stuff at Costa's. i find starbucks sucky

I used to abhor coffee (espresso, caffe latte, cappuccino...whatever!) - until I entered college, whence I had a choice between milky water and milky, watery coffee with b'fast and I'd opted for the latter. Now I'm sick of that as well, and am back to base with "milky water".I was hooked to tea, ever since I can remember- but this too is weaning, with the possible exceptions of Lemon Tea (hot/cold)and leaf tea (as opposed to dust tea).I always was prone to high intake of fluids ( maybe, THAT explains my physical disposition)- and am now stuck with juices and cocoa-based concoctions. There really ain't nothing like a cup of cocoa to brighten one's day!:pHey! I thought you were allergic to milk, or something...?

Do you add sugar or milk/creamer/non-dairy alternative to it? If so I would suggest soymilk as it ( in most commercially available forms ) seems to have more of most nutrients than usual milk. Silk soymilk is particularly good and reasonably cheap.

I was thinking of coffee exclusively in soymilk ( no water ). A quart a day would mean 28 g of protein each day from soymilk, which is quite decent. Anyway, since you don't like that kind of coffee the idea has to be chucked, I guess.

I've been trying soymilk, although not in my coffee. Everything so far either has too much sugar or makes me want to puke. I haven't tried Silk yet, for interesting reasons: I'm strongly biased in favor of products that are advertised less or not at all. Secondly, I am biased against anything organic because of my political orientation. So thanks for pointing Silk out.

AFAIK there are two reasons to prefer organic: one, if you think large scale capitalism and mass production are bad, and two, if you want to be close to nature and natural things, and if you're into the whole sustainable development thing. I am strongly opposed to both these viewpoints (which is quite unsurprising given my libertarian political outlook). It's not that I think organic is worse, it's just that I don't see anything in it to justify the extra cost.

I have many friends who would probably consider my stance on environmentalism to be arrogant, dangerous and neurotic. (Fortunately I have better things to talk to them about than the environment :-) I remain unapologetic, and will shamelessly link to Environmentalism as Religion.

Silk ( at walmart ) was one of the cheapest brands I have come across. Of course great value is cheaper, but I hadn't liked it.

My main reason to use organic stuff is that fewer animals would be killed in the farming process etc. May be this doesn't make any real difference but (i)I don't mind the extra cost (ii)In general I find organic food more delicious. (iii)To what extent would using organic products aggravate the hazardous effects of blind environmentalism?

Well, there is a third - you believe that the organic food is better for you than the other kind. For example, you might be concerned about pesticide residues on non-organic food. I think that this is the main reason my parents prefer organic produce.

That might in fact very well be true: I don't know enough about it to have a position. However, I'm quite sure that non-organic can't be worse than food in India, and since that didn't kill me for 22 years, it's not a factor that worries me :)

Well, I don't know anything about the political factors though I am curious to hear what they are ( if they appeal to me I can try to change myself too - that could save me a lot of money since of late I have been shifting more and more towards using organic products! ). By the way atleast silk has an unsweetened variety.

My mom (and sis) tried tempting me with soymilk that was Pista (or maybe it was simply Elaichi) flavored (actually!), and I all but spit it out.They still claim its yum, though - maybe the taste needs getting used to, as things go or as they said, my tastebuds had been to a burial...;PI mean I know people who initially thought Sarson ka saag was yuck- but after a coupla helpings changed their mind!